Ink jet printers create an image on a surface by ejecting ink through orifices in a print head face plate onto a substrate. The print head face plate communicates with a print head reservoir, which communicates with an ink source. Solid ink printers melt solid ink and deliver the melted ink to the print head reservoir.
When the solid ink printer is turned off, the ink that remains in the print head reservoir can freeze. When the ink thaws in the print head reservoir, air that was once in solution in the ink can come out of solution to form air bubbles or air pockets in the print head reservoir. Air pockets can impede the filtering of the ink as it travels toward the orifices in the print head face plate. Air pockets can also impair the print quality of the printer when an air bubble, as opposed to ink, is delivered through the orifice resulting in an unintended blank spot on the print media. Accordingly, it is desirable to purge periodically the cavities and channels in the print head reservoir to increase print quality.
It is known to purge air out of solid ink print heads using a vacuum system, but a vacuum system is costly, time consuming and less efficient than a system that uses positive pressure. Furthermore, it is desirable to wipe the jets during purging, which is not possible when using a vacuum system. Accordingly, a positive pressure purge system is desirable. In a positive pressure purge system it is desirable to provide a valve to allow purging air out of the orifices and to inhibit forcing ink back out of the cavity where the ink is loaded into the print head.